Coursera accelerates India growth plans

0
511
Coursera accelerates India growth plans

Partnering with top-tier Indian institutions to help them reach a global audience; Launching localized experiences; Building India operations as the APAC hub 

By Coursera

Today, we’re announcing a number of initiatives to accelerate growth and operations in India. As demand for Coursera rises in the country, we are unveiling partnerships with top-tier Indian institutions (including IITs and ISI), announcing new enterprise customers, and introducing several platform innovations to better serve Indian learners and campuses. We are also elevating our India operations to become the hub for the entire APAC region. With 12.5 million registered learners, India is already our second-largest market. The country also ranks highest in new learner growth globally, adding 7.5 million learners since January 2020. 

“The pandemic has dramatically changed the way we learn, teach, and work. Our strong momentum in India reflects the continued trend of individuals and institutions embracing online learning to develop skills for a digital future,” said Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO, Coursera. “We’re delighted to partner with the country’s top higher ed institutions to offer a greater selection of job-relevant content and credentials and launch new platform features that will make learning on Coursera even more accessible and personalized for Indian learners.”

Among the announcements we are making today:

  • Partnership with four new higher education institutions in India, taking the total number of university partners to 10 in the country. New partners include IIT Bombay, IIT Guwahati, Indian Statistical Institute, and Ashoka University. 
  • A Post-Graduate Diploma in Applied Statistics, a top-tier program from the Indian Statistical Institute  
  • Five new certificate programs from Indian partners:
  • A new course, Introduction to Basics of Ventilation, to train frontline medical staff who manage critically ill COVID-19 patients, from our latest industry partner, Philips India 
  • Localized home page for better discovery, geo pricing (most individual courses are priced 40% lower than global), five new payment options, and bulk pricing for avid learners. 
  • New Coursera for Business customers including Reliance Industries Limited, Larsen & Toubro, Wipro GE Healthcare, Usha, ITC Infotech, Welspun India, StarTek and Vardhman Group
  • New Coursera for Campus customers including  UNext Learning, Nitte (Deemed to be University), Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management, JIS College of Engineering, and Somaiya Vidyavihar
  • Setting up a ‘Learner Services’ team in India to better respond to learner needs globally.
  • New scholarships from industry partners:
    • Microsoft, in collaboration with Women in Cloud, will provide 500 scholarships targeted at helping increase women representation in cloud computing
    • IBM will provide 500 scholarships towards various IBM Professional Certificates, Specializations, and courses on Coursera. 

“With the pandemic widening the skill gaps, there is renewed urgency for large-scale reskilling efforts,” said Raghav Gupta, MD – India & APAC, Coursera. “As the country embraces online learning at a faster pace, Coursera is committed to helping many more learners and institutions in India navigate change and disruption with access to world-class learning.”

India also leads the world in the adoption of Guided Projects — a hands-on learning experience that enables learners to build a job-relevant skill in less than two hours. Half of the 2.6 million global enrollments for Guided Projects since their May 2020 launch have come from India. We will continue to expand this catalog with Indian learners in mind, including Guided Projects from local employers.